Two years ago, civil society organizations met in Madrid to draft a Declaration that reaffirmed international standards for Internet privacy. On October 31, civil society groups will meet again in Mexico City to review the Madrid Privacy Declaration and examine privacy laws and policies in Latin America and around the world. This gathering is being organized by The Public Voice, a coalition of global civil society groups that promotes privacy and free expression on the Internet. EFF is part of this coalition and will be presenting at the conference. The event will be held in conjunction with the 33rd Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners Conference.

Dan Ward, attorney to pro-democracy activist and blogger Du Daobin, issued a statement yesterday that noted the efficacy of EFF's campaign to spread awareness about Cisco’s responsibilities to stand up for human rights:

As I have previously stated, recent events lead us to believe that the safety of our clients in Du v. Cisco is dependent, in no small part, on the fact that the world is watching.

In Egypt, an activist and blogger is facing trial for a Tweet. Asmaa Mahfouz, a prominent young activist, is facing trial by court martial for defaming the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) by posting to Twitter:

If the judiciary doesn't give us our rights, nobody should be surprised if militant groups appear and conduct a series of assassinations because there is no law and there is no judiciary.

Pham Minh Hoang, a university professor with dual French and Vietnamese citizenship, was sentenced on August 10 to three years in prison and an additional three years under house arrest, for trying to "overthrow the government." Judge Vu Phi Long ruled that Hoang had "blackened the image of the country" and was guilty of "activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government."

The Nymwars rage on. Over the past several weeks Google has been engaged in a very public struggle with its users over its “real names” policy on Google+, prompting blog posts and editorials debating the pros and cons of allowing pseudonymous accounts on social networking sites. But there is one person for whom insisting on the use of real names on social networking sites is not enough. Unsurprisingly, that person is Facebook’s Marketing Director, Randi Zuckerberg. Speaking last week on a panel discussion about social media hosted by Marie Claire magazine, Zuckerberg said,